Whitin, Crowley end attempt to buy T&G

WORCESTER — Two prominent figures thought to be the sole local potential buyers of the Telegram & Gazette have dropped their attempt to acquire the newspaper and its website, telegram.com.

"For all intents and purposes, we have withdrawn from the process," said Harry T. Whitin, the retired editor of the 148-year-old newspaper.

Mr. Whitin and Ralph D. Crowley Jr., Polar Beverages chief executive officer, were qualified bidders in the current sale. They had also proposed to buy the T&G in 2009, when the paper's former owner, The New York Times Co., first tried to sell The Boston Globe and the T&G.

Timothy P. Murray, chief executive officer of the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce, said he is "99 percent sure" there are no other local potential buyers.

The Times Co. took the papers off the market five years ago, but sold them in August 2013 for $70 million to John W. Henry, principal owner of the Boston Red Sox and now owner and publisher of the Globe. Mr. Henry, in turn, put the T&G and telegram.com up for sale in November.

It is not publicly known who the other potential bidders for the T&G are.

But former Globe publisher Christopher M. Mayer told T&G advertising and business staff in November that several local people and Gatehouse Media, owner of the Framingham-based MetroWest Daily News and several hundred newspapers across the country, had expressed interest in the T&G.

Mr. Henry, who was seen as an enlightened local owner when the Times Co. sold to him, reportedly for a lower price than other bidders, also told the T&G employees he was looking for the "right," preferably local buyer and if he did not find one, he would hold onto the T&G.

"I think you need a local owner," Mr. Henry said at the Nov. 26 meeting in the T&G's downtown newsroom.

When told that the Crowley-Whitin group had suspended its effort, T&G interim publisher James W. Hopson, hired by Mr. Henry in January, declined to comment, other than to say: "Then you sell it to someone else."

In a talk to T&G employees in January, Mr. Hopson said he expected a sale to be completed by June. He was most recently interim publisher of the Press of Atlantic City in New Jersey, which was sold to Warren Buffett's BH Media Group last July.

Owen Van Essen, president of Dirks, Van Essen & Murray, the Santa Fe newspaper brokerage running the T&G sale, said he could not comment about what stage the sale process is in.

Worcester civic and business leaders said Thursday that the apparent departure of Mr. Crowley and Mr. Whitin does not augur well for the newspaper and its readers, because they feared that out-of-town owners might cut staff and news coverage and not understand local issues.

Mr. Whitin and Mr. Crowley both said they could not comment on the asking price for the paper because of a legal nondisclosure agreement.

The Times Co. said in a court filing last month that it valued the T&G for tax purposes at $7 million, the T&G reported Feb. 25.

"Hopefully, the price is a legitimate price. It would be a tragedy to be bought by some conglomerate that doesn't understand the city and the county," said Worcester Mayor Joseph M. Petty. "Knowing the community is very important. It would be unfortunate if we don't have a local group."

Michael P. Angelini, chairman of the city's Bowditch & Dewey law firm, said Thursday that he and other local businessmen were prepared to try to buy the paper, but only as a last resort if it were in danger of closing.

"The fact of the matter is The New York Times gave a discount to a local buyer for The Boston Globe because they had a buyer who professed to be committed to the region, Greater Boston and the journalistic mission that newspapers play," said Mr. Murray, the former state lieutenant governor. "And therefore it is not unreasonable for Mr. Henry to extend that same courtesy to the residents of Worcester in contemplating a sale."

Ellen Clegg, executive director of communications for the Globe, did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

Several media analysts said it is common for a newspaper to be sold to owners from outside the community.

Gatehouse, for example, last year bought the Cape Cod Times and New Bedford Standard-Times from Dow Jones Local Media Group.

As to the apparent lack of a local bidder for the T&G, "maybe it says something about the Worcester business community," said media blogger and Northeastern University journalism professor Dan Kennedy. "It could be that there isn't any local business leader with that kind of financial firepower."

Mr. Kennedy said Gatehouse and Digital First Media, owner of the Fitchburg Sentinel & Enterprise and Lowell Sun and several hundred other papers, are trying to innovate in the newspaper industry, but both companies are known for deep cost-cutting as newspaper revenues and circulation decline.

Rick Edmonds, a media business analyst for Poynter Institute, a Florida media think tank, noted that Mr. Buffett's BH Media Group has also made medium-sized cuts to papers it bought in recent years.

Mr. Edmonds suggested that the Worcester newspaper could be a likely target for cuts by a new owner.

"My impression is that Worcester may be relatively well-staffed for an operation its size," he said.

Contact Shaun Sutner at ssutner@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @ssutner